[N]ewly obtained case-by-case court records show that depending upon the community in which the immigrant resides, the odds of obtaining representation in Immigration Court deportation proceedings varies widely. In some places in the United States the odds are 1 out of 100 of obtaining representation in cases filed in the last 90 days, and rise to only 20 out of 100 for all pending cases. In other communities your chances rise to over 82 out of a 100 of securing an attorney in recently filed cases, and climb to 98 out of 100 for all pending cases.

These and other findings are based upon very current case-by-case court records that were obtained under the Freedom of information Act and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Information reflects court records as of the end of May 2017.

Agency Develops Strategy to further Detect and Deter Immigration Fraud

WASHINGTON –U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has begun a multiphase approach to expand interviews across benefit types, focusing on benefits that, if granted, allow an individual to permanently reside in the United States. Conducting these in-person interviews will further strengthen the agency’s fraud detection and national security initiatives.

This change complies with Executive Order 13780, “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” and is part of the agency’s comprehensive strategy to further improve the detection and prevention of fraud and further enhance the integrity of the immigration system.

Refugee/asylee relative petitions (Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition) for beneficiaries who are in the United States and are petitioning to join a principal asylee/refugee applicant.

“USCIS is collaborating with our federal partners to develop a uniform baseline for screening and vetting standards and procedures. Part of our USCIS strategy to support this uniform baseline is the incremental expansion of interviews for those benefit types which would provide permanent residence in the United States,” said Acting USCIS Director James W. McCament.

Conducting interviews will provide USCIS officers with the opportunity to verify the information provided in the application directly with the individual(s), discover new information that may be relevant to the adjudication, and determine the credibility of the individual(s) seeking permanent residence in the United States. USCIS will meet the additional interview requirement through enhancements in training and technology as well as transitions in some aspects of case management.

Additionally, individuals can report allegations of immigration fraud or abuse by completing ICE’s HSI Tip Form.
For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis), Facebook(/uscis) and Instagram (@USCIS).

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OHIO):
I am worried and concerned about these ICE folks that go into people's homes and they grab mom and dad and try to ship them out of the country and they leave the kids on the front porch. Look, we talked about this in the campaign. I was one of the few voices that – I said a lot of things that didn't happen, tear up the Iran deal, you know, we're going to – we’re going to throw everybody out of the country, we're going to ban all the Muslims. Yeah, sort of funny because I was on the stage and I was saying, "No I don't think that's the way you do public policy." And what you find is most of the things that have, that are being done, a lot of them are being reversed, okay, or they haven't happened. In terms of the targeting of people that are in this country, look, we don’t – when people illegally got in here, we don't condone that. But if they've been in this country and they have not been committing crimes and they've been actually building businesses and being part of their community, going and grabbing them and shipping them out, that doesn't bring our country together.”

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OHIO):
I think the border wall is ludicrous. I stand for a strong immigration policy because I want to see us bipartisanly do what we tried to do a few years ago even with President Bush and later with President Obama. I want to work with Senator Rubio in Florida, I want to work with others. I listened to what Governor Kasich said. It's terrible when we take people—when we are taking immigrants who have been here ten or 15 years and working hard, paying their taxes, active in their church, active in the communities, parents, and we throw them out of this country. Governor Kasich's dead right on that. We have no business doing that. That inhumane policy coming from administration is just part and parcel of what he's been for the last seven months.

Former Aurora priest Alfredo Pedraza-Arias asked a federal judge in June for a "voluntary removal" from the United States, a decision Kane County prosecutors suggest he made to evade a trial on charges of sexually abusing two young girls.
That allegation by prosecutors is contained in a third motion seeking to have 51-year-old Arias' bail revoked in order to delay his deportation until after he stands trial beginning Sept. 18.

At age 31, Nixon Arias cut a profile similar to many unauthorized immigrants in the United States. A native of Honduras, he had been in the country for more than a decade and had worked off and on for a landscaping company for nine years. The money he earned went to building a future for his family in Pensacola, Fla. His Facebook page was filled with photos of fishing and other moments with his three boys, ages 3, 7 and 8.

Matthew L. Kolken is a trial lawyer with experience in all aspects of United States Immigration Law – including deportation defense before Immigration Courts throughout the United States, appellate practice before the Board of Immigration Appeals, the U.S. District Courts, and U.S. Courts of Appeals. He is admitted to practice in the courts of the State of New York, the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) since 1997.